Puppy sudden separation anxiety regression at 6 months
At six to seven months old, puppies can suddenly lose months of successful alone-time training in a single week. Instead of sleeping while owners are gone, they continuously howl, pace at the door, and chew destructively. This severe regression forces owners to start over, often struggling to achieve even three or four minutes of alone time after weeks of intensive retraining.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Puppy sudden separation anxiety regression at 6 months
- 1Starting gradual desensitization training from scratchDid this help you?
- 2Leaving the puppy in an exercise pen instead of a crateDid this help you?
- 3Getting prescription medication like trazodone from a vetDid this help you?
- 4Doing one main practice session per day with multiple short departuresDid this help you?
- 5Leaving the crate open with a blanket, a low radio, and a chew or Kong toyDid this help you?
- 6Returning during pauses in whining to keep arrivals calmDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“She now HOWLS continuously the entire time we’re gone.”source ↗
“It’s just hard to wrap my head around the fact that one week undid MONTHS of training.”source ↗
“It happened with our 6mo (approaching 7mo now).”source ↗
“I’m working on alone-time training with my 7.5-month-old mixed breed girl (9 kg) and would love to know if my progress is realistic or if I should change something.”source ↗
“Twice I had to leave for ~2 hours. She never slept, kept going to the door, barked, and the second time chewed a draft seal at the door.”source ↗
“Is 3-4 min after 4-5 weeks a normal pace, or am I too slow?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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